Hi Airbnb community!
Wanted to start a conversation here since the bedbug problems in London and Paris have been all over my instagram. A while ago one of my guests at a Airbnb’s that I host reported a bedbug. She added a picture of a tiny spider on the sheets. (So shocking!!) Airbnb immediately gave her a forced full refund of a multiple day stay and blocked our Airbnb from being booked for 2 weeks (including cancellation of already made bookings). We got to work right away and had a exterminator come to our place. He determined, we didn’t have a bed bug problem at all, just a tiny spider that had entered the house. (Now we are thinking this guest might just wanted a refund and placed the poor thing on the sheets). The exterminator gave us a official report that we did not have bedbugs. However, Airbnb still did not pay out the cancellation of that guest, we did not get the already booked guests back and our airbnb still stayed blocked for a while. Next to that we had the cost of the exterminator and we bought a mattress protector.
I now run two Airbnb’s that have high financial stakes. They have been running well and get booked most of the month (from people all over the worlds !!aaah!!) Missing out on two weeks of income on both of these would be absolutely devastating and a huge financial blow. Is there anything anyone is already doing to prevent guests from bringing bedbugs? Would it be weird to put a note on the door for guests to check their bags before entering and to ask them to place their bags away from beds on higher surfaces (or will this just make them hyper vigilant to look for tiny (not bedbug) spiders in my place?
